B lymphocytes regulate several aspects of immunity including antibody production, cytokine secretion, and T‐cell activation; moreover, B cell misregulation is implicated in autoimmune disorders and cancers such as multiple sclerosis and non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas. The delivery of messenger RNA (mRNA) into B cells can be used to modulate and study these biological functions by means of inducing functional protein expression in a dose‐dependent and time‐controlled manner. However, current in vivo mRNA delivery systems fail to transfect B lymphocytes and instead primarily target hepatocytes and dendritic cells. Here, the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) system that can encapsulate mRNA, navigate to the spleen, transfect B lymphocytes, and induce more than 60 pg of protein expression per million B cells within the spleen is described. Importantly, this LNP induces more than 85% of total protein production in the spleen, despite LNPs being observed transiently in the liver and other organs. These results demonstrate that LNP composition alone can be used to modulate the site of protein induction in vivo, highlighting the critical importance of designing and synthesizing new nanomaterials for nucleic acid delivery.
- Award ID(s):
- 2002933
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10447638
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Bioconjugate Chemistry
- Volume:
- 34
- ISSN:
- 1043-1802
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 673-685
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract The production of new proteins with messenger RNA (mRNA) has gained a broad interest due to its potential for addressing a wide range of diseases. Here, the design and characterization of novel ionizable poly(β‐amino ester)‐
co ‐poly(caprolactone) terpolymers, synthesized via the combination of the ring opening polymerization and the Michael step‐growth polymerization, are reported. The versatility of this method is demonstrated by varying the number of caprolactone units attached to each poly(β‐amino ester) (PBAE) terpolymer. The ability of the novel poly‐caprolactone (PCL)‐based PBAE materials to deliver mRNA is shown to depend on the physiochemical characteristics of the material, such as lipophilicity, as well as the formulation method used to complex the polymer with the oligonucleotide. This latter variable represents a previously unstudied aspect of PBAE library screens that can play an important role in identifying true top candidates for nucleic acid delivery. The most stable terpolymer is injected intravenously (IV) in mice and shows a transfection efficacy several times higher than the polyethylenimine (PEI) which is focused in the spleen, opening the possibility to use these biodegradable carriers in the intravenous delivery of antigen‐encoding mRNA for cancer immunotherapy and vaccination. -
Abstract The coronavirus disease of 2019 pandemic has catalyzed the rapid development of mRNA vaccines, whereas, how to optimize the mRNA sequence of exogenous gene such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 spike to fit human cells remains a critical challenge. A new algorithm, iDRO (integrated deep-learning-based mRNA optimization), is developed to optimize multiple components of mRNA sequences based on given amino acid sequences of target protein. Considering the biological constraints, we divided iDRO into two steps: open reading frame (ORF) optimization and 5′ untranslated region (UTR) and 3′UTR generation. In ORF optimization, BiLSTM-CRF (bidirectional long-short-term memory with conditional random field) is employed to determine the codon for each amino acid. In UTR generation, RNA-Bart (bidirectional auto-regressive transformer) is proposed to output the corresponding UTR. The results show that the optimized sequences of exogenous genes acquired the pattern of human endogenous gene sequence. In experimental validation, the mRNA sequence optimized by our method, compared with conventional method, shows higher protein expression. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study by introducing deep-learning methods to integrated mRNA sequence optimization, and these results may contribute to the development of mRNA therapeutics.
-
Abstract Objective Previously, we found that diet‐induced
HH cy in mice caused decreasedeNOS expression and signaling in mesenteric arteries, but greatly enhanced non‐NOS , non‐prostacyclin‐dependent vasodilation, which involvesMEJ communication. To further assess whetherHH cy enhancesMEJ communication, this study examined endothelium‐dependent attenuation of phenylephrine‐induced vasoconstriction (myoendothelial feedback) and key molecules involved.Methods Myoendothelial feedback was examined in isolated mouse mesenteric arteries, after 6‐weeks diet‐induced
HH cy, using pressure myography. Gap junction (Cx37, Cx40, Cx43),NOS (eNOS ,nNOS ,iNOS ), and potassium channel (IK 1) protein expression were measured with immunoblots, and connexinmRNA s with real‐timePCR . Contribution ofnNOS +iNOS to vasomotor responses was assessed using the drug TRIM.Results Myoendothelial feedback was significantly (
P < .05) enhanced inHH cy arteries compared to control, coincident with significantly greater Cx37 andIK 1 protein and Cx37mRNA . Cx43 protein, but notmRNA , was significantly less inHH cy, and Cx40 was not different.eNOS protein was significantly less inHH cy.nNOS andiNOS were not different.TRIM had little effect on vasomotor function.Conclusions Diet‐induced
HH cy enhanced myoendothelial feedback, and increased Cx37 andIK 1 expression may contribute.nNOS oriNOS did not upregulate to compensate for decreasedeNOS , and they had little involvement in vasomotor function. -
Enzymatic pathways have evolved uniquely preferred protein expression stoichiometry in living cells, but our ability to predict the optimal abundances from basic properties remains underdeveloped. Here, we report a biophysical, first-principles model of growth optimization for core mRNA translation, a multi-enzyme system that involves proteins with a broadly conserved stoichiometry spanning two orders of magnitude. We show that predictions from maximization of ribosome usage in a parsimonious flux model constrained by proteome allocation agree with the conserved ratios of translation factors. The analytical solutions, without free parameters, provide an interpretable framework for the observed hierarchy of expression levels based on simple biophysical properties, such as diffusion constants and protein sizes. Our results provide an intuitive and quantitative understanding for the construction of a central process of life, as well as a path toward rational design of pathway-specific enzyme expression stoichiometry.more » « less